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Fintechs connect

PayPal and Intuit are two of the first nonbank institutions to win permission to distribute loans through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program under the CARES Act to help smaller companies ravaged by the effects of COVID-19.

PayPal will leverage existing tools and data it uses to provide loans and cash advances to entrepreneurs and other businesses, according to a press release.

Intuit’s QuickBooks Online Payroll customers may begin applying for PPP federal relief loans this week, and the company plans to expand the ability for other QuickBooks customers to apply in the coming days, according to a press release.

Cross River Bank, Divvy, Kabbage, Fundera and Veem are among other fintechs that enable small-business customers to apply for PPP funds, Forbes reports.

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The IRS deposited the first batch of stimulus checks into eligible citizens’ accounts on Saturday, April 11, the agency announced on Twitter.

The IRS also launched a Get My Payment site at IRS.gov for eligible taxpayers who filed a tax return in 2018 or 2019 but did not provide bank account details to submit that information to receive a stimulus check. This week the IRS expects to roll out a second tool, available by April 17, to track the status of electronic payments and checks mailed to those who did not supply bank account details. These tools will be accessible via any browser, the IRS said in a press release.

Staying in

Fraud management service Kount has launched a service tracking specific online shopping trends during the pandemic to help e-commerce operators watch for fraud. Overall e-commerce volume has stayed about the same, but certain merchandise categories are spiking, Boise, Idaho-based Kount said in a press release.

Sales of wine and craft items were up more than 100% in March, while home office furniture and electronics sales rose 54% and vitamin sales increased 43%, Kount said.

Hand sanitizer sales spiked more than 1000% during March, while toilet paper sales were up 145%. Firearms saw an 89% increase, Kount said. Kount’s tracking service will be updated weekly based on data from 32 billion online interactions across 6,500 e-commerce companies.

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Global e-wallet provider Sticpay is launching a prepaid card to operate within its e-wallet and work within UnionPay's international network to reach 177 countries.

London-based Sticpay is targeting consumers in Japan, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, but consumers in any country may order the Stic Card after verifying their identity, according to a press release.

All users of Sticpay's global e-wallet are eligible to order the prepaid card from any country around the world after verifying Know Your Customer documents.

Coronavirus pushes consumers to increase digital wallet usageCommonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) reports digital wallet users spent a AUS$1 billion (about $630 million) in March 2020, a high for the bank that's part of an acceleration to digital wallets and contactless cards during the coronavirus crisis.

Central bank digital currencies can also protect identityCryptocurrencies in their archetypal form operate via cryptographic arrangements, which inherently circumvent identification requirements. One core differentiator between a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and pre-existing digital currencies, such as bitcoin, is that a CBDC might conceivably be implemented to operate in tandem with a digital identity system.

Potential delays aside, gas EMV is coming. And it's expensive.With the EMV liability shift date for automated fuel dispensers (AFD) looming, subject to any last-minute changes, we are seeing major changes at fuel sites across the U.S. With close to 150,000 active fuel sites in the U.S. alone, there are a huge number of individual pumps that will need to be upgraded to accept chip and pin cards.